Professor Ersula Ore Arrest to be Reviewed by ASU and Outside Agency After Video Goes Viral

ASU Assistant Professor Ersula Ore is taken to the ground by an ASU police officer in her May 20 arrest.

Are you serious?

Police dash-cam video of the action-packed, May 20 arrest of Ersula Jawanna Ore, a 33-year-old rhetoric and English assistant professor at Arizona State University, has gone viral, feeding claims of racism and police brutality.

As publicity grows along with an accompanying firestorm of criticism leveled at ASU, the university announced that the use of force and initial confrontation by an ASU police officer will be reviewed.

Sunday's late announcement by ASU, provided to the Huffington Post, comes as the book is already being thrown at Ore by Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, who is prosecuting the assistant professor on three misdemeanors and one felony count of aggravated assault related to the incident.

Stewart Ferrin, a rookie officer with ASU Police, worked as a police dispatcher with his stepmom at the department as recently as 2012. He's wanted to be a cop his whole life; his dad, John Ferrin, is a retired Tempe officer. Now the younger Ferrin has broken onto the world social-media and news scene with video of him roughing up a black woman who had committed the sin of failing to follow his orders.

But Ore's the star of the video, proving embarrassingly that her mastery of rhetoric has its limits. Ore's a former Penn State instructor who's done research into "the circulation of lynching photography and its place in contemporary American discourse." Her next paper can be about her own experience in a modern, albeit figurative iteration of "lynching photography." It would have plenty of readers, judging from the headlines and rhetoric from some Internet sites about Ore's take-down and arrest.

"Arizona State University Police Arrest Black Female Professor For Jaywalking," says the headline on a story in Uptownmagazine.com, followed by an article that begins, "In another eyebrow-raising incident out of Arizona..."

"Newly Surfaced Dash Cam Video Captures Police Brutality at Its Worst," is the headline in news round-up site mic.com.

Ersula Ore's police mug shot

No one likes to be told what to do, but the video shows Ore was nothing like compliant. That may be admirable in a GTA5 sense, but it isn't entirely reasonable. Common sense dictates that if cops are bullying you, don't bother resisting -- they always win that battle. You and lawyer can deal with any alleged civil-rights violation later, if that's how you want to play it.

But Ore made her decision to throw down with Ferrin. She's fighting the charges of resisting arrest, obstructing a road, refusing to give her name to a police officer and aggravated assault, court records show. She's started a website and defense fund. The video seems to have infused her defense with public support, and that could help with her most pressing problem: keeping her job.

ASU officials, after first saying that ASU police appeared to have acted appropriately, released the second statement late Sunday night mentioning the pending review of the incident. The statement also reveals, apparently for the first time, that police allege a patrol car "nearly hit" Ore as she stood in the middle of College Avenue near Fifth Street.

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Amazing that African Americans think they don't have to listen to authority and have such suck a$$ attitudes!! They start the problems then turn around and sue with the "poor black me" syndrome.....it's a money game for them and once again these people feel like it's "owed" to them! America is getting sick of this racecard bull$h*t!

Don't assume he didn't cite you because of race. You don't know if he is looking for a suspect, watching out for something that may have been dispatched or broadcast, etc. Contrary to your belief, there may have been something more serious going on that required his attention. The world does not revolve around you. You still were doing something illegal, just because you weren't cited, doesn't mean it was because you were white. It just means you got lucky.

The fact that hundreds of other people jaywalk every day doesn't mean it's ok. People who speed try to provide the same excuse to police all of the time and that doesn't fly either. The correct thing to do in this situation is be polite to the officer, show you're ID and be on your way. People who sweat stuff like this only make their situation worse. Control what's in your span of control, not what's outside of it. There's a time and place if you feel your rights are being infringed upon. During a stressful situation, it's never the time to argue or fight. Use common sense and be tactical in your approach. And, I meant to say tactical, not tactful.

Hundreds of students walk on those streets without getting harassed by police for jaywalking. There's very little vehicular traffic especially since the construction. The cop seemed to single her our for some reason. This along with his disrespectful tone is what made her upset. That said, she didn't handle herself well at all afterward.

serious crime that j walking . because u could get hit by a drunk driver or something ......... serious j walking in the mean time 12 bicycles were stolen ,2 rapes occured ,1 armed robbery , 2 murders and every other person in a car was high or drunk great job police . u really were protecting and serving ..that is why i love police .. i would perfer walking with a J to j walking ....guns and hoses ...

Just 2 weeks ago I jaywalked in the exact same spot. Was in a rush to catch a light rail. Oh....I did it in front of an ASU police officer sitting I his car who did see me, I made eye contact. I didn't get stopped. She was listening and asking for an explanation. Which you have the right to do if you are stopped. I wouldn't have made a scene like the prof but it is clear kid, that you do live in a racist county with some of the most corrupt and racist law enforcement in the nation.

Funny I jaywalked right in front of an ASU police officer sitting in his vehicle in that SAME SPOT a few weeks ago. I was in a hurry to catch the light rail. He let me go and yes he did see me, so I guess because I'm Caucasian I didn't get harassed? If he would have stopped me then I would have had to pay a ticket, but I didn't get stopped in the same spot! And this prof did....why? Because if the obvious - ASU and Maricopa County are home to the most corrupt and racist police forces, sheriffs, and local governments.

No pal it was racist profiling I needed to catch a light rail and jaywalked right in front of an ASU police officer who saw me in his parked car IN THE SAME SPOT. That area is a mess and I guess I got to keep going because I'm white.

reading a lot of the comments on here is leaving me with a lot of questions. is this all the video we are getting? if it is, i dont see how so many people have come to their conclusions of what happened. i would like to see a video that shows more than just the point of where the situation is escalated. just seeing the video included doesnt show the cause, just the results of the whole situation.

if anyone out there can answer the following question with first hand knowledge, i would be grateful

are the dash cams always on or is it something the officers turn on at a certain point? (if they are always on, is there a complete video i can find to see what really happened from beginning to end?)

Garyn, you appear to be a little slow to catch on. Let me make it easy for you to understand. She committed a minor crime: jaywalking. When you commit a crime, it is a good idea to have proper identification, because law enforcement will ask you for it.

Have you ever been bullied by someone YOU PAY to PROTECT YOU? Freshly disillusioned people tend to act out of character. *YOU'RE* only seeing the END of the interaction, genius. Stop shaking *your* head, *you're* losing grey matter...

She got handled like anyone else would have. Thats why you cooperate. She made things worse. Shut your mouth, and do what they say. Its not like they were harassing her. People like her make it worse for everyone else.

Well, due to Ray Stern's completely biased interpretation of the event, lets just get one thing clear. Officer Ferrin instigated everything by being a classically disrespectful asshole. Whether I was jaywalking or not, if anyone approached me saying "do you know what the difference is between a street and a sidewalk," I'd reply with "yeah asshole, do you know the difference is between a street that's open and one that's closed?" Are my tax dollars going into rookie cops pockets so they can be smart asses and possibly cause a completely unnecessary lawsuit against the city? (in this case a university)

Completely leaving racism out of it, as I don't think this had anything to do with race. This is just another example of an officer taking advantage of the position he's in. If Ferrin wanted to do his job correctly, he would have left out all the argumentative jargon, and simply told Ore to wait while he wrote her a jaywalking ticket.

Ferrin crossed the line, plain and simple. He was disrespectful, plain and simple. These charges will probably get dropped so that ASU avoids expensive lawsuits and general bad publicity, plain and simple. Ferrin will most likely be fired, crushing his dreams of being a cop just like his daddy (sob sob), plain and simple.

Should Phoenix Times tell Ray Stern take his crap journalism to another publication. Yes, plain and simple.

I live in Tempe, it is a closed street, I jaywalk all the time there to get to Panda Express...This officer probably has something to prove, I teach CJ most these police universities hire were either fired or cannot get hired by city and state police agencies.

WRONG! She needed to be a decent human and comply when asked instead of causing all this crap in the first place! Such attitudes by these people! I've seen it happen to all races when they won't behave authority! Dumba$$!

@AZ-123 oh you where there a witness well then your above rant should be in the investigator (s) report .Seems to me with your in-depth reporting on all this you should be a key witness for the defense please keep us all informed of the progress in this case.

@fishingblues @JolieNic Sorry, but I'm not a mind reader. I can only respond to what you actually say. As for a point, you didn't have one. You said that she was arrested for being arrogant. That's not a crime. Ill-advised? Absolutely. Illegal? Not yet.

Both the professor and the police officer come out of this appearing to be uncooperative, but he approached her wrong, and she escalated the situation. The ultimate fault seems to be with him, as you can see other people also jaywalking in this video. Why are they not also being stopped? If this issue is a big enough problem, shouldn't there be more officers there? This looks like a rookie CAMPUS cop who is more than happy to throw around his power. The stunning change in the narratives and responses to this matter since the video's release show that this isn't simply about jaywalking.